Simon,
If you think that you want to fish a match then do it. As Jeff says stick to club matches to begin with, the banter is always much better than the open scene, and you have a better chance of framing as the standard is not as good.
I can remember fishing my first match, I was 11 at the time and it was a junior match on my local lake. I knew this place inside out as I spent nearly every day of the year down there after school and weekends watching the match anglers fish. I knew that I needed to fish caster over hemp for the roach and ball it in for the bream.
Now I had asked my dad to get some bait for me on the Saturday, hew came back with a bag of tares and 1/4 pint of maggots. Not exactly the best things but hey I still fished. OK I did crap but I still learnt.
I think that is how I got the match fishing bug, by watching anglers fish, and catch fish, thats what I wanted to do. Even to this day, 25 years later, it's all I want to do. I can not see myself sitting behind buzzers et al, it's just not MY style of fishing.